Released: 2014

Genres: Pop Punk, Dance Pop, Electropop

The Musiquarium’s SUCKER Review Score: 6 out of 10

Arriving only one year after her debut album, True Romance, Charli’s second album SUCKER finds the U.K. pop singer expanding on her synthpop sound with more of a pop punk influence this time around.

The vulgar title track is quite cheeky and displays Charli xcx’s defiant and rebellious attitude, though the song itself feels a little childish in its execution. Break the Rules has a decent instrumental, but once again, the lyrics sound like they were written by a high schooler. London Queen is a pop punk rocker about being a brit in America. Upon first listen, Hanging Around reminded me of Weezer’s Beverly Hills, which made all the more sense when I saw Rivers Cuomo’s name in the writing credits.

Boom Clap was one of the biggest pop hits of the year, with it’s appearance in the drama film The Fault in Our Stars helping to bring exposure to the English pop star, and while its chorus is rather meaningless nonsense, it is admittedly quite catchy and has more staying power than any of the other tracks on the album.

SUCKER feels like a step down from its predecessor (which itself wasn’t great) and though it’s far from being a failure, I feel like Charli xcx is capable of something better and more inspired than this.

For credit breakdowns and historic release details, view Charli xcx on Discogs.

Back to the 2014 Album Reviews Guide or the Charli xcx Reviews page.

Written by Brett Nippard